Consumer Reports and Tesla have been at odds quite a bit in the past few years. In October of 2015, Tesla stocks fell when Consumer Reportscalled the cars unreliable. Then again this year, Tesla's stock fell after Consumer Reports downgraded the Model S because the second generation Autopilot hardware's Automatic Emergency Braking wasn't enabled at highway speeds.
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However, Tesla updated the feature, and Consumer Reports has now returned the Model S to the top safety rating category. Consumer Reports writes: “CR’s engineers then verified at our test track that the AEB operated at higher speeds by driving the electric Model S at a target that mimics the back of a car. We also verified that Tesla had sent the software update to its other cars by checking online forums and inspecting cars at Tesla dealerships.”Meanwhile, it remains a fact of life that various studies on autonomous vehicles and car fatalities all indicate that self-driving cars will save lives. In the US alone, around 30,000 to 40,000 people die in auto accidents annually, about 94 percent of which are caused by human error. Bizarrely, around six million drivers admitted they hit other cars intentionally, according to the American Automobile Association (AAA). It seems obvious that self-driving cars are the safest option and, when integrated into everyday life, will save lives.
